AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

By attending the course and individual study, the students will learn about the evolution of the history of Spanish literature from its origins to the seventeenth century, the literary eras, and the historical-political and cultural context in which they developed. They will be able to relate the great European cultural currents with the works and authors studied, also establishing links between them.

The students will be able to read, paraphrase and translate the literary texts proposed in Spanish and contextualize a literary work. They will also be able to comment and analyze a literary text of the time studied, identifying literary stylistic features, topoi and figures of speech.

TEACHING METHODS

36 hours of lectures with the help of multimedia material.

Before each lesson, the literary texts that will be commented on will be made available on Aulaweb, so that students can have them with them in class. In Aulaweb the teacher is gong to upload also support material, various types of in-depth analyzes and suggestions for those students who wish to autonomously expand the study of a specific theme.

The teacher will also use Aulaweb to communicate with students, who are therefore invited to register on the course page on this platform.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

First Part: The Middle Ages

The concept of the Middle Ages; the centers of culture in medieval Spain; Arab, Jewish and Christian Spain;

The first literary manifestation in a Romance language: the Jarchas

The Spanish epic and the Poema de Mio Cid

Mester de juglaría and mester de clerecía

The Romancero and the Cancionero

Medieval prose and don Juan Manuel

Medieval poetry: Gonzalo de Berceo, El Arcipreste de Hita, Jorge Manrique

La Celestina and the dawn of the Renaissance.

Second part: "Siglo de Oro" (Renaissance and Baroque):

Poetry (Garcilaso de la Vega, san Juan de la Cruz, fray Luis de León, santa Teresa de Jesús, Luis de Góngora, Francisco de Quevedo, Lope de Vega);

Prose (Picaresca, Miguel de Cervantes);

Theater (Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, Calderón de la Barca).

During the lessons, due emphasis will be given to the study of the birth and development of the various literary currents, placing them in the historical-political, economic, artistic framework of Western culture in which they come to life. However, students' attention will be particularly drawn to the literary text. A selection of proposed texts, made available through aulaweb, will be read, commented and analyzed.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

For attending students:

1. Notes of the lessons
2. Literary texts inserted in Aulaweb
3. Diccionario de tópicos literarios (available in Aulaweb).
4. Cesare Segre, “Costruzioni rettilinee e costruzioni a spirale nel Don Chisciotte”, in Le strutture e il tempo, Torino, Einaudi, 1974, pp. 183-219. (available Aulaweb)
5. Felipe B. Pedraza – Milagros Rodríguez, “La ‘comedia’: caracteres, evolución, entorno”, in Manual de literatura española IV. Barroco: teatro (available Aulaweb).

Students who are NOT attending the course of Modern Languages and Cultures can request an alternative text, in Italian, to replace the text in point 5.

For non attending students:

1. Carlos Alvar, José Carlos Mainer, Rosa Navarro, Storia della letteratura spagnola. Vol. 1. Il Medioevo e l’età d’oro, Torino, Einaudi, 2000.
2. Cesare Segre, “Costruzioni rettilinee e costruzioni a spirale nel Don Chisciotte”, in Le strutture e il tempo, Torino, Einaudi, 1974, pp. 183-219. (available in aulaweb).
3. Felipe B. Pedraza – Milagros Rodríguez, “La ‘comedia’: caracteres, evolución, entorno”, in Manual de literatura española IV. Barroco: teatro (available in aulaweb).
4. Two books (in critical edition with notes and introduction) to choose from:

- F. de Rojas, La Celestina.

- Anonimo, Lazarillo de Tormes.

- Miguel de Cervantes, don Quijote de la Mancha.

- Miguel de Cervantes, Novelas ejemplares.

- Lope de Vega, Fuenteovejuna.

- Lope de Vega, Peribáñez y el comendador de Ocaña.

- Pedro Calderón de la Barca, La vida es sueño.

Students who are NOT attending the course of Modern Languages and Cultures can request an alternative text, in Italian, to replace the text in point 3.